


The Dead Don't Speak

by shakabrah



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Death, Fluff, M/M, its really fluffy and also really angsty, like 50 50, like a lot of blood, take a shot everytime keith calls out lances name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 11:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7755766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shakabrah/pseuds/shakabrah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Lance! Are you still kicking?” Shiro’s voice suddenly spoke in the comm. </p><p>Lance suppressed the urge to joke with a remark on his current condition. “Well technically, I don't think kicking would be the best idea in my current situation. I'm a little stuck. Rooted to the ground. In a stabby predicament.” It failed. </p><p>“God damn it Lance.” Pidge mumbled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dead Don't Speak

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be an outline for a little one shot angst comic I wanted to draw, but then this became a monster 9.5k word fic. what happened  
> Also thank u @ mom for the fic title you ruthless human being.  
> PS: Pls forgive me for the slightly inaccurate depictions of blood loss, namely Lance drifting off like 3 times.

It was funny how things worked, just a few hours ago everyone had been cooking together, laughing and cracking harmless jokes at each other.

Lance had been in the kitchen, helping Hunk out with making dinner for tonight. Pidge was sitting at the counter, typing away on their computer at a speed that seemed unnatural. Along with the ambient noise of various cooking sounds and loud tapping, the soft hum of music filled the room. Mostly due to Lance’s nagging and begging, since _“How the hell can you cook in silence? It’s not right dude”_.

The music was soft now, however just moments ago the fast-paced tempo of a pop song had filled the room and Lance almost cut off his finger thanks to it.

The mechanical whirring of the door opening was barely audible thanks to the music, so no one took noticed to Keith walking in. He wasn’t too surprised by the scene, in fact it was a somewhat common one. Music, Pidge, Hunk, Lance, and food usually being involved. Keith couldn’t help smiling at the oddly heartwarming scene. “So, can I like...get a glass of water?” Keith spoke up, leaning against the counter island Pidge was seated at. Keith knew better than to just casually walk into the cooking fray, last time he got burned by the alien equivalent of Pizza.

Molten.... _'Cheese'_ , Keith learned, was incredibly painful.  
  
"Nuh-uh, you want water, you gotta work for it." Lance said, busy hacking away at alien vegetables. "Come over here mullet and help us."  
  
With an dramatic groan, Keith practically dragged himself over to where Lance was, eyeing what he was currently doing. Which was currently sweeping the diced pieces into a bowl.

"What? Do you not know how to cut these?" Lance questioned.

Keith shook his head hesitantly,

"You're kidding right?" Lance stopped what he was doing to look over at Keith. "You literally have a sword as a weapon and you're telling me you can't dice veggies."

Keith shook his head again. Lance grumbled something in Spanish under his breath, throwing his head back in a melodramatic way. "Alright, then just peel this...this—Hunk what _is_ this again?"  
  
"No clue, but Coran said it's supposed to be pretty tasty."  
  
"Get peeling." commanded Lance as he stuffed the unknown vegetable into Keith's hands.

After that, the three of them worked in mostly silence, save for the music playing in the background. It was a pleasant silence though, calming and almost comforting in a way. Well it was pleasant; then the song changed.

The song change itself wouldn't have even been bad, considering it didn't start off with a loud guitar riff or heavy bass . No, what ruined the tranquility was Lance slamming his knife onto the table and all but yelling, “It’s our JAM!” and spinning on his heel to look at Hunk with a large toothy grin.

“What, no. _No_ Lance I—I got this giant hot thing in my hands—” oven mitts “—right now and I can't just drop it,” Hunk spoke shifting his eyes between the large, incredibly hot, cylindrical object in his hands and Lance.

“Fine then, I’ll just sing alone and without a dance partner,” Lance whined, turning his attention back to the vegetables. Yet despite his words, Lance only hummed the song to himself, swaying slightly to the music.

 _“There was something in the air that night, The stars were bright, Fernando”_ Keith’s eyes flickered up, glancing over at Lance as he suddenly began to sing along to the music. While he did expect Lance to sing , he expected it to be an annoying, tone-deaf voice. Not...well, _this_.

“There he goes,” Pidge snorted.

 _“They were shining there for you and me,”_ Lance brought up his knife and suddenly pointed it at Keith, _“For liberty, Fernando,”_ Keith just stared at Lance with an incredibly confused and mildly cautious expression. He didn’t trust Lance holding a sharp cutting knife barely a few inches from his face.

Thankfully, the knife was gone and placed back on the cutting board, however now Lance’s hand was now outstretch to Keith. He stared at the hand, then at Lance, and back at the hand again. “Please don’t tell me you don’t know how to dance.”

“I know the macarena... kind of...” Keith mumbled.

Lance threw his head back yet again, mumbling a familiar string of foreign words. Then he was grabbing both of Keith’s, placing one swiftly on his shoulder and continued to hold the other.

“Lance,” Keith narrowed his eyes at the male in front of him, “ _What_ are you doing? 

“Dancing, duh.” Lance answered simply, and then without much of a warning pulled the both of them back, putting the dance into motion. Keith was caught off guard by the sudden movement and stumbled slightly. The dance itself was humorously unbalanced, while Lance clearly knew what the moves were, Keith was practically stepping on Lance’s toes every other movement, a death grip on Lance’s hand and shoulder so that he wouldn’t fall. Lance continued to sing along to the song, voice reaching all the note’s. Meanwhile Keith was deathly silent, eyes intensely focused on trying _not_ to fall down and make a fool of himself. 

Though any fears of looking like a fool was extinguished when Lance decided to grab some green onion looking vegetable and stuck it in his mouth, like some thrift store, makeshift rose. Keith rolled his eyes when Lance began to wiggle his eyebrows in a comical fashion. 

Lance suddenly pulled away from Keith, only their interlocked hands remaining together. “Is it over—?” Keith’s question was interrupted as Lance yanked the other over, and of course Keith all but tripped over his own feet and began a crash course for the floor. Lance caught him, though it only lasted a fraction of a second once Lance realized just how much Keith weighed. Lance, being the major dick that he was, quickly let go of Keith, not keen on the idea of falling down too.

So with a final yell, Keith fell face first onto the floor 

“Whoops.” Lance said, not a single shred of remorse in his voice. If anything, it sounded like he was forcing back a laugh. “That was supposed to be a dip, but I severely misjudged how much Keith weighs.”

“You are _the_ worst.” Keith groans.

Along with Pidge and Hunk, one more person was laughing at the scene. Lance glanced over, Allura and Shiro were now seated at the counter island, beside Pidge. Shit, when did they get here? Allura seemed pretty amused by the show though, Shiro though? Shiro was just pinching the bridge of his nose, though the faintest smile could be seen if one squinted.

“So, is that how dancing usually works on Earth?” Allura asked, and Pidge involuntarily snorted.

“Right idea, terrible execution,” Shiro answered, and Lance gasped in a mock hurt way.

Lance turned away from them, and reached out to help Keith from off the floor. Whom just mumbled a ‘Thanks’. Without missing a heartbeat, Lance slung an arm around Keith’s shoulder, “We really gotta practice that dip my dude.”

Instead of shoving Lance off of him, Keith subconsciously leaned a little into the touch. Honestly, he had gotten use to Lance’s rather physical nature and even enjoyed it a little. Besides Lance, Hunk seemed to be the only other physically affectionate person on the team. It was nice, though Keith wouldn’t openly admit it anytime soon.

“—I really would love to see more of your earth dances, it sounds incredibly interesting.” Allura had been chatting with Shiro and Pidge about dances still. “Especially this ‘dabbing’ Lance keeps telling me and Coran to do. I mean what is the purpose—”

Before Allura got a chance to finish her questions—and thankfully before Lance had a chance to make some stupid joke—the castle’s alarms began to blare, basking the room in the faint red, pulsating glow.

When they all made it to the control room, they learned the cause of the blaring alarms.

_Galra._

Just a few hours ago, everyone had been cooking together, laughing and cracking harmless jokes at one another. Now they were in the heart of a battle that could possibly be a major dent in Zarkon’s forces if they won.

Now, Lance was firing shots at Galran soldiers, desperately trying to keep them away from breaking past him. Lance had opted to stay when the soldiers came, yelling at his team to keep moving while he held them back. The others had been reluctant but finally they left, and Lance could only hope that things went smoothly and that they made it to the main control room.

When another barrage of shots came, Lance ducked behind the large metal debris. As the shots slowed, Lance peered from above his post, gun out and shooting at the soldiers. The task of keeping the soldiers at bay wasn't hard, though it wasn't easy either. It was incredibly tedious though, that was for sure.

“Shiro, what’s your guy’s status right now?” Lance asked through the comm, ducking behind the debris again as shots fired relentlessly at him.

“They entered the control room and are currently engaged with the commander of the ship,” Pidge replied.

“Alright, well hurry up! I can't keep these assholes here forever,” Lance said, and as if to emphasis his point the firing of shots became much more violent, even more so when one shot a crate containing something explosive. Thankfully Lance had fast reflexes, and thankfully the armor had a pretty sturdy built in shield.

“Roger, we’ll do our best. Hang in there Lance,” Pidge said. With that, Lance turned his attention back to the mob of soldiers that seemed to come out of thin air.

Again, it wasn't hard to thin out the numbers quickly. However it was tedious to avoid the shots being fired at him while trying to shoot as well, but Lance managed to take out a large majority of the soldiers that once filled the disastrous hallway. If it wasn't for the tense situation, Lance might have fist pumped the air and gloated on the comms for how badass he was right now. With a few more rounds, he was able to take out the last few soldiers in the hall.

“Lance, you are one BAMF,” Lance said to himself with a smirk, spinning his gun in a flashy manner. However his gloating was cut short when the air vent grate above him fell and hit his head, stunning the teen for a moment. That moment was all it took though.

A soldier, an actual living Galran soldier, emerged from the vent and landed a painful blow to Lance’s face, knocking him to the floor face first. Lance quickly activated the shield on his armor, attempting to turn around but found his body pinned by something. With an aimless shot, the weight on his back was gone and Lance took that moment to turn around briskly.

In just a second, so many things happened at once. A sword had been thrusted into his side and into the metal floor underneath him. Lance brought his gun up and moved against the sword to get a clear shot at the Galran soldier. Then with a loud “ _Pow_ ”, Galran blood was on the floor and the soldier fell lifelessly to the ground.

It all happened so fast, Lance wasn't even aware that a sword had been impaled into his side. Let alone the fact he moved against the sharp blade, worsening the injury. However now that the adrenaline was dissipating, he was becoming acutely aware of the agonizing pain pulsing throughout his torso. Along with the gory wound and worrying amounts of blood. To make matters worse, Lance couldn't even pull out the sword if he wanted too—which no, he wouldn't, that could be the only thing stopping him from bleeding out.

At least he hoped so. Lance had to wonder if moving against the blade and widening the through-through cut negated that little fact.

Point was, the sword was stuck in the metal flooring underneath his body. So all Lance could do was try and stay in the position he was in and hope the others would come back soon. Lance wasn't too worried—okay he was worried but he wasn't panicking, after all once they got in their lions, it was just a matter of getting back to the castle and being thrown into a healing pod.

Except they wouldn't be able to wormhole back.

Shit. That definitely put a damper on the healing pod plan.

The castle was a long distance away, Shiro had insisted on it since this Galra base was heavily defended and the Castle would have just been a sitting duck during the mission. Allura had conjured a wormhole to transport the lions, however something went wrong. Something about energy, life force, blah blah— Lance didn't really pay attention to the fine details. Point was, Allura wasn't going to be able to form a wormhole for a while.

It has been a while though. At least an hour since the mission started.

Lance’s thoughts grounded to a painful halt when a sharp pain shot throughout his body. Looking down at the injury he whined pathetically at the dull pulsing pain.

Okay, now he was panicking a little.

“Lance! Are you still kicking?” Shiro’s voice suddenly spoke in the comm.

Lance suppressed the urge to joke with a remark on his current condition. “Well technically, I don't think kicking would be the best idea in my current situation. I'm a little stuck. Rooted to the ground. In a stabby predicament.” It failed.

“God damn it Lance.” Pidge mumbled.

“What! I couldn't help it!” Lance shot back, wincing at the sharp pain that came with yelling.

“Well he’s still being...well, Lance, so he can't be hurt too bad.” Keith spoke.

“True.” Pidge said.

“Alright, we're on the way. What's your location Lance?” Shiro spoke.

Lance blinked. It was a little hard to see at the moment and he had to wonder if that should be a cause of panic. “I….” Lance felt his brain draw a blank, followed by another sharp wave of pain from trying to look around. “Fuck! Ow, God. _Ow_ ,” Lance hissed, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. “Sorry Shiro, I'm not sure exactly. It's nearby the spot where we split up,” Lance spoke, voice vaguely weak. Blue eyes flickered down to his injury again and it seemed like the blood flow increased.

“Coran? Mind guiding us to Lance’s location?” Shiro said, then after that Lance couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the comms.

Instead his focus was on his impalement injury and trying to keep his torso up so he didn't slip and fall back on the floor. Which would just widen the already gruesome injury. Part of him began to worry about the fatality of the injury. He was quite literally impaled with a sword at the moment. Though the blood loss could be a lot worse, Lance mused to himself. “Don’t panic Lance, this is nothing…” Lance reassured himself, keeping his breathing shallow as to not budge against the sword.

The distant sound of footsteps on metal flooring alerted Lance, he had to suppress the dying urge to turn around and see who was approaching. The footsteps were steady and calm, Lance felt a slight tinge of annoyance at the fact. He wanted to cry out and tell whoever was coming to his aid to walk faster, but even talking at a normal volume didn't seem like a good idea.

“Lance?” Keith’s voice was the one that called out casually, blissfully unaware of the dire situation, “Lance?” The sound of footsteps grew faster. “Lance! What the hell is wrong with you!” Keith shouted, skidding to a stop at Lance’s side, purple eyes glaring at the Blue Paladin. However, as Keith’s eyes drifted towards the injury, his angered expression fell and was replaced by something...a little harder to read. Fear? Shock? Sickness? Maybe all the above?

Lance laughed it off, though quickly cried out in pain from the action. “Right. No laughing,” Lance mumbled mostly to himself, before looking back up at Keith with a sheepish grin. “So, are you just going to stand there gaping or actually help me?” Lance asked, keeping his grin intact despite the harsh pain still throbbing in his side.

“What the Quiznack is _wrong_ with you?!” Keith snapped, anger along with a few other emotions clear on his face, “Why didn’t you tell us you were literally _impaled_?” Keith knelt down to get a better look at the injury and situation.

“Well...I did imply it, quote ‘ _I'm a little stuck. Rooted to the ground. In a stabby predicament_ ’ unquote, remember? You yelled at me for it—” Lance’s amused grin fell when Keith shot him a hostile glare.

“You are the only person I know who could crack so many terrible jokes while bleeding out,” Keith grumbled, before bringing a hand up to enable the comm on his helmet. “Shiro, I need your help. Lance has a sword impaled into his side and I’m not sure I can carry him back myself.”

Several confused and suprised comments came at once on the comms. Mostly from Hunk, who seemed to already be panicking.

“Guys, calm down. Panicking isn’t going to help. Keith, I’m on the way, just sit tight and try to control the bleeding and don’t let the sword or Lance move,” Shiro said calmly.

“Roger.” With that, Keith turned his full attention back onto Lance, whose expression had shifted into one of mild fear. Keith couldn’t really blame him, he was surprised Lance managed to crack so many jokes for this long. “Don’t look so scared, you’ll—”

“Who said I was scared, Mullet,” Lance snapped, though his voice lacked the usual pack it punched, wavering and soft spoken.

Keith was quick to bring a hand up to support Lance’s back, to try and keep him steady and from moving against the blade. “Don’t talk, it just makes it worse,” Keith said, eyeing the wound and wondering how exactly he was supposed to stop bleeding on an injury like this. “Just focus on staying awake, alright?” Keith looked back to Lance, making sure that he wasn’t drifting off.

Instead of a nod, Lance just offered a grin, “You know, you got really pretty eyes.”

“Shiro! Hurry up, I think Lance is getting delusional!” Keith yelled into his comm.

If just laughing didn’t hurt so much, Lance probably would have burst into a fit of laughter from how worried Keith looked thanks to his idle compliment.

Lance still laughed. Though it was more of a pathetic hiss through his teeth, shoulders shaking slightly. Both from the pain and held in laughter.

“Just one day, one day Lance. Can you be good for _one_ damn day,” Keith grumbled, once realizing that Lance was trying to laugh. At him no less. Though Keith’s annoyance faltered when he felt the weight on his hand grew heavier. Lance’s amused hissing noises shifted into quiet whines of pain, eyes shut closed. “Lance?” Nothing. “Hey! Lance! Wake up, now isn’t the time to doze off!” Keith snapped desperately.

Lance heard him, but couldn’t bring himself to follow through with the request. His body choosing to disobey the order to stay awake. Instead opting to drift off into unconsciousness. The feeling was very familiar somehow, Lance was sure he experienced it before.

 

* * *

 

“Lance! You alright?” Keith’s voice rang out as he skidded to Lance’s side, grabbing the other’s limp hand and supporting his back.

Lance gripped back, looking up to offer Keith a weak smile. “We did it, we really are a good team.”

The smile Keith gave him back made Lance’s chest swell with a warmth. It must have been the first time Keith smiled at him, without a hint of teasing or mocking. The pleasant feeling didn't last long though, pain shot throughout Lance’s body and made him double over, eyes squeezing shut and body going limp.

Thankfully Keith caught him on his fall before he face planted into the floor. “I got you buddy, just hang in there” Keith’s calm voice spoke, practically cradling Lance in his arms.

Everything after that had been a blur, all Lance could recall was Hunk and Coran bringing back a crystal and hooking it up to the castle. Power surging back into the castle. Sendak being taken to the lower levels to be contained, and then Allura ordering Keith to get Lance to the infirmary ASAP.

“Lance, you still there?” Keith asked.

Lance gave a groan, nodding his head as much as his injuries allowed. Then without much of a warning he felt arms wrapping underneath him and hoisting him off of the ground. Though not without a very obvious struggle. Lance couldn't help but laugh weakly.

“Shut up—Christ, I severely misjudged how much you weigh, Lance,” Keith groaned, but still managed to continue walking while carrying the injured Paladin.

“Moron,” Lance said, voice barely audible. Lance found himself enjoying the comforting warmth that seemed to radiate off of Keith, so he curled closer into it, smiling as he closed his eyes again. The pain seemed to slowly disappear.

“Lance?”

 

* * *

 

“Lance!!” Keith’s yell made Lance wake up with jerk and a groan of pain. They were moving but Keith was walking in front of them...well walking backwards so he could look at them. Speaking of them, who the hell was carrying Lance—

“Lance, are you still with us?” Shiro’s voice spoke, much more calm and collected compared to Keith's. Shiro was carrying Lance with ease—well relatively with ease.

“Yeah yeah, I'm fine. I was just daydreaming a little,” Lance said, waving his free hand while the other remained on his injury, now pressing down to halt the slow bleeding. It seemed Shiro and Keith managed to get him off the sword without killing him, Lance noted. Along with practically stopping the bleeding for the most part. What continued was to be expected but it wasn't nearly as critical as before. Nonetheless, Lance still felt weak and was pretty sure waving his hand slowly and talking was all he would be able to do for the time being. Pain continued to throb throughout his abdomen but it was dull and more of a pressure than anything else.

“Well quit doing that!” Keith snapped, hands balled into fists at his side. It was a little hard for Lance to take him seriously when Keith continued to walk backwards.

“Awww, was Keith worried about me? How cute—”

“Yes! I thought you were _dying_ Lance!” Keith yelled, shutting Lance up efficiently. With that, Keith turned around and began walking forward like a normal person.

Lance winced and casted a look up at Shiro, who in turn just gave him a concerned dad look. “So, what’s the plan?” Lance asked.

“Get you in the Red Lion and hope Allura will be able to open a wormhole soon. The rest of us are going to keep any backup Galra fighter ships from coming to you. Keith, your job is to fly as fast as possible. Don't engage any fighter ships unless necessary,” Shiro explained.

It didn't take long before the three of them reached the Red Lion. Shiro lowered Lance onto the built in bed, there weren't any restraints so a few hesitant looks were shared. There wasn't anything else they could do though. “Alright Lance, make sure to keep pressure on the wound and don't fall off the bed. Keith, focus on getting out of here as soon as possible and try to fly as smooth as possible,” Shiro said, and with that he was gone and the cockpit door closed.

As the Red Lion powered up, Lance found himself slowly and unwillingly drifting off again. “Lance? You doing alright back there?” Keith asked, “I haven't heard a shitty joke from you in a while,” the Red Lion was taking off now.

“Never thought I'd hear that come out of your mouth,” Lance replied, voice hoarse. “I must really be dead if the Keith Kogane actually wants me to crack jokes,”

“Anything to keep you from making a mess in my Lion,” Keith joked, before focusing on getting out of the Galran base as soon as possible. He did not want to run into the backup that was most certainly on the way.

As Keith focused on piloting Red, Lance found his only source of focus gone and his mind drifting off. Eyelids heavy, he couldn't stop the eventual fall of them and he found himself slowly drifting off.

 

* * *

 

 

There were very few traumatic moments Lance could recall in his life. Even being blown by a bomb and nearly dying wasn't really traumatic for him. If anything, surviving it gave him a great story to tell chicks and also bragging rights.

However, being separated from his friends by a wormhole in space was definitely on the ‘Traumatic Moments’ list. Even more so when he crash landed on an unknown planet that could easily be light years away from the others. The Blue Lion was down and nothing worked except for the emergency functions.

Lance could handle being stranded. _On Earth_. In space there was nothing familiar to him. Fear kept him rooted to his Lion’s cockpit, and injuries kept him from fixing his malfunctioning Lion. With a severely broken arm, there was little Lance could do.

Things only seemed to become worse as the days passed. His hope was dwindling with each lowering sun and empty comm static.

After ten days, a miracle happened and the once quiet comm burst to life with glitched voices. Familiar glitched voices. Namely Allura. After some struggling, Lance was able to communicate with her and give his location. Within a few hours the Castle picked him up and Lance almost cried when he saw everyone. Everyone was Alive and in the castle. Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, Keith, Allura, and Coran. Every single one of them there, looking at Lance with relief.

Lance cried.

Hunk was the first to tug Lance into a large bear hug, lifting the sobbing teen off the ground. He even joined Lance in the tear fest, wailing about how he thought Lance was gone for good. About how his mom was going to kill Hunk for letting him die. Along with a hundred other things.

Pidge was next, joining Hunk and Lance’s hug. They didn't cry aloud like the two, but there were tears. “Why are you always the one that almost dies,” Pidge joked, letting go to punch Lance’s arm in a friendly manner.

Once released from Hunk’s embrace, Lance looked over at Keith, who stood nearby with a smile on his face. Keith reached out, pausing momentarily as if debating something, before patting Lance on the back. “It’s good to have you back,” Keith said.

Lance being Lance just gave Keith a smug grin, “Aw, did someone miss me?” He teased.

Keith just blinked, tilting his head in mild confusion. “Yes…?” He answered hesitantly, “Everyone missed you Lance,” The sincere look on Keith’s face stopped Lance from picking on the poor guy more.

So instead, Lance just yanked Keith into a large hug, squeezing the life out of him. There was a hesitance before Keith returned the hug awkwardly. Mostly due to shock and also not having much experience in the hugging department.

Lance let go of Keith, giving him one last grin before looking over at Shiro. Then making his way over to yank Shiro into a hug as well, cracking a joke about being a ‘Space Dad’. Shiro just groaned in mock annoyance. Allura even decided to join the Space Dad hug, wrapping her arm around the both of them with a large smile.

 

* * *

 

“LANCE!!” Keith’s borderline desperate yells yanked Lance out of his dream. “Christ, Lance, quit doing that! You can’t close your eyes until you’re crammed into those healing pods,” Keith snapped, turning his attention back to piloting once he was sure Lance was awake and alive.

“Sorry  pal, I was just remembering stuff is all,” Lance said, “Anyways, I’m fine. I can’t even feel anything anymore—“

“Lance, that’s not a good thing!” Keith called out, whipping his head to look over at Lance again.

Lance could only imagine how Keith would react if he told him how he couldn’t even move his toes anymore. Or how his whole body felt completely exhausted yet his heart continued to beat erratically. However the bleeding had ceased on his injury, so Lance didn’t panic over the side effects.  “Jeez, quit being such a drama queen Keith,” Lance joked casually to lighten the tense mood.

Suddenly the cockpit was basked in a red glow, warnings up on the main screens alerting that enemy ships were approaching and targeting them. “Alright Lance, just hold on this might be a little bumpy,” Keith warns, before making the Red Lion go faster to hopefully escape the enemy ships instead of having to engage them.

Desperately Lance tried to stay awake, but with each moment that passed he found himself yet again succumbing to sleep. It was just so hard to resist when his body was exhausted beyond belief. Unwillingly Lance found his world drifting into blackness as he slipped away yet again.

 

* * *

 

There were a lot of cool things that came with being a Defender of the Universe, like a LOT of bragging rights, great conversation starter, and also your own giant robot lion. However with all the good came the bad. Mainly homesickness. Something that seemed to affect Lance the most out of the five Paladins.

While Lance genuinely did consider everyone in the castle his family, it just wasn’t the same. Lance missed having his younger siblings practically attack him when he came home during vacation. He missed his mother yelling at him for walking in the kitchen with shoes on. He missed actual home cooked meals. He missed everything.

So being kept awake by the dull ache of it all was a somewhat common occurrence for Lance. Usually he would either go crash in Hunks room for a makeshift sleepover, but it was incredibly late right now. Or at least he assumed it was. Being in a giant castle in the middle of space…it was really hard to tell time. Point was, everyone was asleep and have been for a while. So Lance decided to go check out the training deck. Maybe physically exhausting himself would take his mind off the homesickness and put him to rest.

Upon opening the training deck doors, Lance found he wasn’t the only one with the idea.

Keith was in the room and currently engaged with the fighting simulator, sword clashing against the simulators in violent and fast paced movements. For a while, Lance just watched the show, rather impressed with Keith’s swordsmanship. Granted the day Lance admitted that aloud would be the day Lance accepted defeat. Defeat from what? Lance wasn’t sure but it would be from something.

“End training sequence!” Keith called out, and the simulator came to a halt before a chute opened below it and discarded the robot. Wiping the sweat off his brow, Keith turned to look in Lance’s general direction. “What are you doing here?”

“Take a wild guess, Mullet.” Lance shot, rolling his eyes. “My turn to fight the simulator, now shoo,” to emphasis the ‘shoo’, Lance made a gesture with his hands.

“I just got here,” Keith said.

Lance groaned, throwing his head back over dramatically. “Fine! Then let’s fight. Me and you buddy,” Lance suggested with a grin. Keith shrugged, putting his bayard off to the side and getting into a generic fighting stance.

The first match barely lasted 5 minutes before Keith knocked Lance down with a swift kick to the underside of his leg. The second match thankfully (for Lance's shattered ego) lasted a solid 10 minutes. Both of them continued to spar against one another, taking care not to actually injure the other. For the most part, Keith won each match.  
  
"You're getting better," Keith had Lance pinned under him, trying not to laugh at the pout Lance gave him.  
  
"Don't patronize me, Dropout," Lance hissed, thought instead of hostility his voice spoke with endearment. A grin on his face.  
  
Keith rolled his eyes as he helped Lance up, "Whatever, Cargo Pilot," Keith shot back, returning Lance's grin with one of his own.  
  
This banter continued as the two continued to fight against one another for the next half hour. It wasn't until Lance won five matches in a _row_ that he realized Keith was practically sleep fighting at this point. His moves were sluggish and his responses were slower than usual. As much as Lance liked winning, it wasn't much fun against a sleep deprived zombie.  
  
"Hey Keith? I think we should hit the hay now," Lance said, stretching out his arms high above his head.  
  
Keith blinked owlishly at him, silent for a few moments, "Oh, yeah, right. Sleep. Sounds good," he said.  
  
"Let's grab a drink first though, I don't know about you but my thirst level is off the charts," Lance said before starting off to leave the training deck. Pausing, he glanced behind him to see if Keith was coming with and was pleased to see that yes, yes Keith was coming with.  
  
Walking around a dark empty castle wasn't so bad with someone to walk with. Usually Lance was crying and screaming internally when he walked around the castle during sleeping hours. Especially after that haunted castle mess a while back. Lance shuddered at the memory. The two of them reached the kitchen and Lance flicked the lights on, basking the room in a bright glow that made both Paladin’s groan, shielding their eyes until they adjusted.

Lance took a seat at the counter island while Keith went to grab them both a glass of water. Walking over, Keith took a seat next to Lance and passed him a glass. A comfortable silence fell between the two of them as they drained the water in their glasses.

Once Lance had finished his own glass, he glanced over at Keith. “So, what were you doing up anyways?” Lance asked hesitantly. While he liked to believe Keith and him were most certainly friends at this point, he didn’t share the same closeness that he had with Hunk. Lance still felt like there was a line that shouldn’t be crossed, though he wasn’t too sure what or where that line was.

“I just couldn’t sleep,” Keith answered simply, taking a sip from his glass. There was a momentary silence before Keith glanced over at Lance, meeting his blue gaze. “What about you? I know you would sleep for a week straight if given the chance,” Keith joked.

Lance hesitated to answer the question for a moment, with a sigh he spoke softly, “I’ve just...been feeling homesick is all.” He lowered his blue eyes to the glass of water in front of him.

“That’s it?” Keith asked, though quickly realized his comment came off badly and casted his eyes down. “Shit, sorry. I um...I just meant—”

“It’s fine Keith, I got you, really,” Lance laughed, reassuring Keith with a gentle smile.

“What were they like?” Keith asked, looking back up at Lance. “Your family I mean.”

With a few simple words Lance’s entire face lit up like a Christmas tree, his dark blue eyes practically sparkling at the question. “I’m the middle child, I have an older sister and older brother. Then I have two younger siblings, Alison and Ian. Oh my god and then there’s my mom she was such a mean surfer and would take me out every Wednesday after school to teach me—” Lance stopped mid rant when a heavy weight fell on his shoulder, shocking him silent.

Keith was lightly snoring on his shoulder, shoulders rising and falling at the slow pace, strands of black hair tickling Lance’s neck with each breath. A part of Lance wanted to snap a photo or something to hold as blackmail material over Keith’s head. Especially considering they were supposed rivals (granted at this point in time, the rivalry became something much more friendly). However, Lance decided against it and relaxed against the heavy weight, a fluttering in his stomach as he watched Keith stir a little in his sleep.

With some reluctance, Lance brought up his hand that wasn’t currently part of a makeshift pillow and used it to gently nudge Keith awake. “Hey, I think we should head in for the night,” Lance said, not rushing Keith as he tried to blink away the sleep and get a grasp on his surroundings again.

“Yeah, probably should head out,” Keith mumbled, letting out a yawn as he stretched out his arms and got up from his seat. Lance followed suit, letting out a yawn of his own. Though before he could leave, Keith reached out grabbing on the cuff of Lance’s jacket. “Hey, Lance…?”

 

* * *

 

A white hot pain shot through Lance’s body like a truck being slammed into him at full speed. A loud cry of pain escaped his mouth before he even opened his eyes, breathing labored and heart beating wildly in his ears, practically drowning out the noises of Keith’s panicked calls and the Red Lion’s alarms. The vertigo made it hard for Lance to even get a grasp on what exactly was going on. Everything was a blur and the world around him sounded muffled and distant.

Keith desperately tried to focus on the task of avoiding Galran fighter ships, maneuvering through an asteroid belt as fast as Red could go. However the task was incredibly hard when he could clearly hear every pained noise Lance was making, each one stabbing his chest with a wave of guilt and fear. It was thanks to his reckless piloting that Lance was all but thrown off the bed and in what Keith could only assume was agonizing pain. “Lance! Lance are you still with me?” Keith called out again, his previous calls falling in vain. While Lance was still whining in pain, the lack of verbal response was worrying Keith.

Keith’s calls fell on deaf ears, Lance could barely focus on anything except trying not to puke his guts out from the spinning room and nausea. Along with the pain that continued to throb throughout his torso, occasional sharp waves hitting him like spikes being shoved into his abdomen. On the bright side, Lance technically could hear Keith now but his voice was nothing more than a distant background noise in Lance’s current condition.

The calls stopped, but the sound of the Lion’s guns being fired continued to fill the room. The alarm had ceased however the fight continued. Lance put all his focus into trying to still the spinning room and control his panicked breathing. The fighting continued for what felt like hours for Lance, but in reality was only a mere three minute battle.

“Lance, are you still alive?” Keith calls out again, this time turning around to look at Lance. He quickly regrets it, visibly wincing at the sight. The fall off the bunk must have been enough to reopen Lance’s injury back to step one. Blood seemed to be pooling underneath the Blue Paladin’s body, specifically where his injury laid. There wasn’t anything Keith could do right now though, seeing as there were still two Galran ships targeting him in this asteroid belt.

“Shockingly,” Lance replied and Keith felt a wave of relief hit him, even if Lance sounded _terrible_ right now. “Just worry about getting us back in one piece, Mullet—” Lance’s joking insult was interrupted by a cry of pain as his body practically screamed at him. Shutting his eyes, Lance focused on trying to breathe somewhat normally but found that even that task was incredibly taxing. “Shit. This hurts a lot, I can’t even feel my fingers or toes right now,” Lance spoke weakly, voice on the verge of cracking from the pain, his words not even an exaggeration.

If anything, Lance’s words were severely playing down his condition.

The Red Lion shook as a fighter Galran ship landed a hit on them, Keith let out a string of curses as he turned all his attention onto taking out the fighter ships quickly. However Keith couldn’t ignore the possibility of Lance drifting off into unconsciousness again. Especially since this time it would most likely be the _last_ . Keith could **not** let that happen under any circumstances.

“You know Lance, I’m shocked you’re still alive. You’re a lot tougher than anyone gives you credit for,” Keith called out loudly and clearly for Lance to hear over the sounds of weapons being fired.

“Is _the_ Keith complimenting me? I must already be dead,” Lance joked with hoarse voice, laughing on reflex and quickly regretting the action, crying out in pain as tears pricked into the corner of his eyes. His cries slipped into pathetic and sad whines as the pain continued to throb harshly, as if reprimanding him for trying to laugh and have a good time in his final moments.

“I’m serious Lance, you managed to survive a bomb blast without much help for what? Hours?” Keith said, jerking his Lion to the side to avoid a blast and firing away at the enemy ship. “You even woke up from a _coma_ to fire a gun at Sendak, that's pretty damn impressive.” Keith finally landed a hit on one of the enemy ships, blowing it to pieces. One down, one more to go.

“Then there was that time we were all at that weird alien bar,” Keith continued on, while pulling his Lion back to locate the other ship. “You got stabbed right in the middle of your stomach and managed to stay awake, cracking jokes the whole way back to the Castle’s infirmary. Then you got stabbed again a week later for flirting with some planet’s princess. Which was apparently the highest offense punishable by death.”  

“Allura gave me an earful for that one,” Lance commented.

“Yeah, she really did,” Keith laughed. Locating the Galran ship, Keith locked onto the target and flew directly for it. “I think your crowning achievement was getting eaten by that giant..snow worm thing and living. Despite being in there for hours. Hunk almost fainted when you came crawling out of it's sliced open body,” He stuck his tongue out at the memory in disgust, that had been an adventure alright.

“You should keep talking about me, it’s pretty great,” Lance said, amusement hidden in his weak and barely audible voice.

“Like your ego needs anymore stroking.” Keith joked, piloting through the asteroids as he chased down the Galran ship. “When we first met, I honestly was really confused. Especially when you kept acting like we knew each other. At first it was a little weird and pretty annoying, _you_ were annoying. You acted like such a brat, always fighting with me over nothing, I couldn’t believe that you were going to be my teammate,”

‘But, I was wrong.” Keith shot down the Galran ship, a sigh of relief escaping his lips now that that problem was gone. Now it was just a matter of escaping this asteroid belt as fast as possible. “I think I slowly started realizing it after we first formed Voltron. That there was more to you. And there was,”

A momentary silence passed throughout the room, “Well, don’t leave a guy hanging,” Lance managed to joke weakly, “Tell me about how you totally fell head over heels with me.”

Keith scoffed, rolling his eyes at Lance’s incredible ability to still be such a goofball when he was literally bleeding out to _death_ on a metal floor. “Well for starters, you’re still an annoying asshole but...you're _our_ annoying asshole. It’s almost endearing sometimes,” Keith admitted, voice softening. “You always managed to stay positive and keep a calm head even when the mission starts to go down the shitter and…” Keith paused, talking about Lance like this was putting a slight strain on his chest. Like a vice was tightening with each word, making his heart ache.

So he changed the topic, “Remember when I finally figured out your stupid ‘Voltron’ chant?” Keith asked with a chuckle, “After we finally freed a planet from the Galra, you ran over to us, cheering about how we ‘Kicked major ass!’ then threw out your dumb chant—”

“I say Vol, you say—”

“—Tron.” Keith replied without missing a heartbeat, “Everyone was so shocked, especially you. You looked like I just killed someone in cold blood and just stood there frozen. I thought you were waiting for a Hi-5 so i just, reached over to smack your hand. Pidge broke out into a fucking fit of laughter after that. Then out of nowhere, you just yanked me off the ground into this ridiculous bone crushing hug—”

“You looked at me like I killed your cat in cold blood when i let you down,” Lance said with a wavering voice, a sad smile on his face as warm tears slips down his cold face, and he thanked the stars that Keith was currently focused on piloting the Red Lion.

Keith laughed at that, “Hey, remember when we got suck on that freezing cold planet in the middle of a storm? You know, the one with glass for rain? We were screaming like little girls when Allura told us. I don’t think I ever ran so fast in my life,” Keith spoke, changing topics in hopes it would continue to keep Lance interested, awake, and conscious.  “We found a cave but had to barricade ourselves with our shields since the ‘rain’ was getting in. To entertain us you decided to talk about your family for the whole 3 hours it took for the storm to stop and Allura to come get us. It was nice though, to hear you talk about your family so passionately and I felt like I learned a lot more about you that day.” Keith paused, “I know you’ve told me about them before, but it was only ever small bits and pieces. That day you told me practically everything. From how you had your toes broken by a crab, to the quirks your little sister had.”

There was another pause, a momentary silence. “They sound nice, your family. Your stories made me wonder what it’s like…” Keith trailed off, pursing his lips as he mentally debated between continuing his sentence or sparring Lance a sob story. Lance deserved to at least know though, the guy practically poured his heart out about his family to Keith. Despite their ‘Rival’ status.

“That shack I lived in, it’s my mom's. At least, I’m pretty sure it was hers. I can’t remember much, the only thing I had was an old picture of her with me, I was probably like a year old at most. I don’t know what happened to her or who my dad was but…she looked nice. She had short black hair and that kind of mom face that just screams ‘warm and loving’. Hearing your stories it makes me wonder what it would have been like,” Keith said, keeping a level voice despite the ache in his chest.

“When we get back to earth...I’ll introduce you...to my family,” Lance said, his voice barely audible and hoarse. Keith felt the vice on his chest tighten painfully, a lump forming in his throat. “They would love you _so_ much, my mom would adopt you in an instant,” Lance strained to finish his sentence, whining out in pain and struggling to keep a grip on his conscious.

Before he could stop it, a choked noise escaped Keith’s throat, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. Desperately he bit at his lip to stifle the oncoming cries, not wanting to break down like this—not in front of Lance, not when he was supposed to be the calm one in this situation. In the corner of his blurred vision, he saw something that made Keith’s spine snap straight and hope fill his entire being.

Allura.

“Keith! Have you escaped the Asteroid belt and are you clear of any Galran ships?” Allura’s voice asked through the video feed.

“I am clear of both the asteroid belt and Galran ships. I need a wormhole ASAP Princess,” Keith replied back, rubbing quickly at his eyes to clear his vision of the tears. “Lance is in critical condition and—”

“I can open a wormhole in about ten of your earth minutes, I’ll need you to reach this location by then,” Coordinates showed themselves onto the Red Lion’s dashboard, “You can put your Lion on autopilot to the coordinates I sent you, good luck.” With that, Allura’s face disconnected from the video feed and Keith wasted no time in doing as told.  

Once the Red Lion was on autopilot to the location, Keith all but dashed over to Lance’s side and felt a wave of relief and fear strike him at once. Lance was still awake—even mustering a weak grin at him— but his injury was...well, terrible would be an understatement. Tearing his gaze away from the injury, Keith returned Lance’s pitiful grin with one of his own. “You hear that, we’re going to make it! Allura said she’ll have the wormhole opened in ten minutes,” Keith said, hope practically shining in his eyes.

So Lance felt terrible for being the one to crush it, “Keith, I’m barely holding on right now. I can barely see you, everything's so blurry and messed up...Keith, buddy, pal, my man, I can’t even move my arms or legs at this point.” Lance admits, and his heart shatters as he watches that hope just fade from Keith’s eyes.

“God dammit Lance, just...just shut your quiznack—”

“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly,” Lance jokes with a smile.

“ _Lance_ ,” Keith snaps desperately, “Just shut up, we are going to make it out of here. We are right there you just have to hold on for a few more ticks,” Keith pleaded, holding back the physically painful lump in his throat.

“I don’t want to die...but at this rate—”

“Shut up Lance!” Keith yells, visibly shaking from what's most certainly _not_ anger.

Lance lets out a breath of a laugh, thankful that the pain seemed dulled down at this point. “Hey, Keith? Can I tell you something before…” Lance trails off, not wanting to say the words aloud. Even though he’s well aware of what's going to happen, Lance can’t bring himself to spell it out aloud.

“Please don’t do this Lance, you absolute asshole,” Keith’s broken voice hurts more than the actual injury on Lance’s body.

There’s hesitation from Lance though, not due to Keith’s desperate pleas but something else. Did Lance really want to drop the bomb on Keith now of all times, to confess about something like this when he was quite literally dying. In the end, Lance pushed aside his selfish last words and decided to spare Keith. “You’re actually a really cool dude, I’m glad we got to fight side by side, that we became a team...partners...friends, all that good stuff.” Lance struggled to speak at this point, voice wavering and just barely above a hoarse whisper, “I’m sorry for being such an annoying dick sometimes—”

“You’re being an annoying dick right now! Quit acting like you’re going to die, there’s just a few more ticks before the wormhole is open and you can get shoved into the healing pod!” Keith yells, desperately trying to keep Lance hanging on just a little more. He couldn’t let him die here, not when they were so close.

As if on cue, a bright blue light basked the cockpit and Allura’s picture followed suit on the dashboard monitors. “Keith! I have the wormhole open, you are clear to fly through.” Allura’s said, and Keith jolted up ready to dash for the controls, but—

A hand brushed against his own weakly, stopping him in the middle of getting up. Violet eyes glanced down to Lance who couldn’t even manage to grab his hand as his arm fell limply to the ground with a thud. “Keith, don’t leave me buddy, I don’t want to be alone…” The fear laced in Lance’s voice stabs a knife right into Keith’s chest, twisting the blade when those dark blue eyes glanced up to meet his.

It took every ounce of willpower to tear away from Lance, running to the Red Lion’s dashboard and barely sitting down as he quickly guided the Lion into the wormhole. The few seconds it took for the Lion to travel through the wormhole felt like hours for Keith. Fear and anxiety coursed through him and he prayed to whatever deity existed that Lance would pull through.

Once the Red Lion flew out the wormhole and the castle was within sights, Keith made sure that the Lion would be able to make it to the bay without his aid and then rushed back to Lance’s side once Red gave a purr of confirmation.

A wave of relief practically punched Keith in the stomach, the air leaving his lungs as his knees gave out and he fell by Lance’s side, a smile on his face. “See, I told you that you wouldn’t die,” Keith says, and Lance gives him a weak smile.  “Allura, Coran? Can you come and help me get Lance out?” Keith asked through the comm.

“We’re already on the way Keith, just hold on you two,” Allura replied.

Keith turns his attention back to Lance and gently rolls him over so he isn’t on his side, hand continuing to support his back. Keith brought up his free hand to press against the injury but realized it was rather pointless considering the bleeding had stopped. “You’re freakishly warm right now,” Lance mumbled softly, earning a snort from Keith.

However Keith’s amusement died short when he pressed his hand against Lance’s cheek. It was dangerously cold, like touching metal. It had been hard to notice with blaring red lights, but Lance looked incredibly pale compared to his once glowing tan skin. A rock sunk in Keith’s stomach but he tried to shake it off. Help was coming, Red had already landed in the bay. It was just a matter of Allura arriving and transporting Lance to the infirmary.

Shifting positions, Keith adjusted himself so he could comfortably pull Lance into his lap and into a gentle hug. Keith’s stomach sank further when he realized how lifeless Lance’s body was right now, it was like pulling dead weight onto his lap. However the warm puff of breath on his neck reminded him Lance was still alive.

“Gay…” Lance whispered, pressing his cheek against the warmth of Keith’s neck.

“Kinda,” Keith replied with a snort of amusement, Lance’s hair tickling his chin a little. Amazing that Lance could crack jokes for this long. Subconsciously, Keith tightens his grip around Lance to pull them closer together.

Another puff of breath against his skin, and Keith realizes Lance is attempting to laugh. “Thank you and...I’m sorry,” Lance whispered, a tinge of sadness in his words.

It set Keith on edge and his body tensed, “What do you mean, ‘you're sorry’?” Keith asked. He waited for an answer, but the warm puffs on his neck told him Lance was still there. “Lance?” they slowed down and Keith felt a panic hit him like a truck. He gently shook Lance, and the silence remained, the warm puffs gone completely.

Then the dead weight. Lance’s entire body was now officially dead weight and Keith choked. The tears Keith tried desperately to hold back from Lance fell like an open flood gate, burying his face into Lance’s hair to hide his tear streaked face. As if on cue, the cockpit doors opened and Allura and Coran stood in the doorway. Both of them cringing at the Lance’s injury that was still very clearly visible from behind.  

Keith let go of Lance’s body as to allow Coran to take him down to the infirmary, he had picked Lance’s dead weight body with ease, gave a nod to Allura before rushing out.

Allura hesitantly walked over to Keith, offering a hand to help him up. There was a hesitance but Keith accepted the help, getting up with a stumble and rubbing quickly at his eyes. Allura’s facial expression softened, “I’m sorry Keith, let's just hope we weren’t too late,” She offered a small smile.

Keith couldn’t bring himself to tell her Lance died in his arms. That his pulse was gone and his breathing stopped.

  
  
  



End file.
